tractors in the wrong direction

[milkman]

That makes sense to me, the old Allis Chalmer G, had the mount for the impliments behind the front wheels, of course a 22 ft disk would be hard to fit there. I have always thought that bulldozers had their seats on the wrong end, you can't see the blade very well.

 

[Soundguy]

Lots of our large heavy equipment.. especially earth engageing ones have canted seats, or seats that are mouinted at a right angle to the length o f the tractor. In effect, looking front or back is the same. On one unit, the break pedal is in the middle of the operators console, and as Imentioned , you sit either on the right or left side. Break operates from either direction as it is hooked up via a clevis and linkage. ( It is a rubber tired roller ).

As for our farm tractors. While I do occasionaly look back to check things.. I'll bet that is less than 10% of my time.. Most of it is staring ahead, grinning ear to ear..

Soundguy

 

[RobS]

<font color="blue"> I have always thought that bulldozers had their seats on the wrong end, you can't see the blade very well </font>

Maybe dozers will evolve as concrete mixers have. Used to be a mixer body was thrown on the back of a conventional truck chassis with the chute out the back. Fine for travelling down the road but not convenient for the operator unloading at the job site. Around here now-a-days all we see are the front discharge mixers where the end of the drum and the chute are at the front of the truck where the the cab is and the engine is way out back. Maybe a similar architecture could be applied to a dozer /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jimg]

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Right...I think NH believes theyre in the business of making whole tractors and not just seats. This of course would be a great opportunity for some enterprising soul to make their mark. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jimg]

"Remember the GM vehicles with Heads Up Displays several years back? (maybe still available?). Patterned after the displays in fighter jets. Trouble is, in a fighter jet the operators attention is primarily focussed on the instrumentation and much less so on the visual surroundings. Quite the opposite in a car. The driver needs to pay strict attention to the visual surroundings with only an occasional need to assess the instruments. HUD does not address the needs of an automobile driver (IMHO)."
I dont know about that...I see a lot of folks every morning on the hwy 'driving by instruments'...or perhaps theyre reading the newpaper. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Sorry I'm confused. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[milkman]

That works a lot better for the mixers, in my early days i used to spend the day dragging 3/4 in wrecker cable to pull those rear dumpers into building sites, sure made me sleep well, now they have pumps for that. One day I saw some idiot pull out in front of one of the front dump concrete trucks, he had to get on the brakes really hard and dumped part of his load out of the drum onto the roadway. I'm sure he was using some choice words.

 

[RobS]

<font color="blue"> Most of it is staring ahead, grinning ear to ear </font>

Hey, I know that seating position very well /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ScottAR]

Just replying to the bottom of the thread.

Valtra and several other European manufacters as a well as the New Holland already mentioned do have rotating seats/controls.

Dozers are gonna stay front engined for awhile. Eimco tried the "operator in front" setup and it wasn't popular. Little downpressure on the blade with the engine mounted behind and poor visibility when backing. Dozers spend nearly as much time backing as pushing.
Track loaders on the other hand, work much better as rear engined machines. The engine makes an instant counterweight.

 

[nomad]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ...Valtra and several other European manufacters as a well as the New Holland already mentioned do have rotating seats...)</font>

Mentioned NH seat can rotate 15-20 degree according to Jimg above. Is it same/less/more degree at those other European tractors? To my "neck", seat should rotate at least 40-45 deg.

RobS (and Soundguy who says looking at the rear while driving his tractor takes only 10% of his driving time),.. well, you maybe right because you are using CUT, i.e. little use of attachments. So, of course, you would staring ahead with grinning ear to ear. I guess you've never felt the neck pain like real farmers have. Tractor MFGs/designers/etc too are probably like you, users of CUTs only.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Milkman a few companies made front seated dozers, Eimco is the main company. They had a rear engine front seat line. Also a German company made one to. the thing with the front operator is clearing and quarry work mainly something rolling onto the cab or a branch going through it. The hightrack Caterpillars do feel like your riding on the front of the machine with the improved visibilty. Ive run few scrapers with the seat on a 45 for fine grading to. I usually sit sideways on a roller or compactor because of the repetetive backing and trying to stay out of the same tracks each time. Ill post a picture of a 103 Eimco dozer if its the coorect size.